


Wishes

by anticyclone



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-27
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-16 07:56:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/859752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticyclone/pseuds/anticyclone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah has tried to put up boundaries in her life. There are things she wants, and things she wants to keep out. Unfortunately, the former sometimes let in the latter...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wishes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HannaM](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannaM/gifts).



Sarah collapsed on her bed and blinked at orange sunlight streaming through the dorm windows. Dust motes floated overhead.

Then the light shifted, turning golden, and the dust to sparkles.

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut before they rained down on her.

Sure, college was a time where things changed. It felt small and stifling and it wasn't at all what she had dreamed, but her dad and her stepmother had insisted, had said she would learn things here. And she was, kind of. From what she could see, plenty of other students were experiencing … strange things … too.

…But Sarah was pretty sure that most of them didn't start to see lights where there should be none. Or, instead of crying from midterm stress, heard music when they dragged their fingers along book spines in the library. Or looked down in the middle of the dining hall to see they had four shadows branching off from their feet.

Rolling onto her side, Sarah hugged a pillow to her stomach. She could see herself in the mirror glued onto the dorm wall next to their door. Her hair was wind-blown and hanging off the side of the bed. And… was that a leaf in it?

She grunted and sat up, grabbing her hair brush. This day was just never going to end. At least the air wasn't sparkling anymore. There was only so much she could take at once.

Magic wasn't Aboveground. It was only Underground, in the Labyrinth and hidden places like it. Sarah knew that with all her heart but it was getting harder and harder to remember these days.

Magic leaked to her world through cracks, that was all. It shouldn't pop up in so many places around her. It shouldn't begin to fill her world.

Her life felt full of cracks that had been there … had been there, for so long… no, wait. She squeezed her eyes shut. For five years. She was twenty now and she'd been fifteen when it happened. No matter how much it felt like the Labyrinth had always been a part of her life, she had to remember that it had only happened when she was fifteen.

If she didn't hang onto that, it would start to creep through the rest of her life. If she forgot, if she relaxed her grip on herself, she might let more magic in. And she couldn't let that happen. It would make her lose her mind. It was hard enough seeing extra shadows and sparkles and hearing sounds that shouldn't exist. No one knew about that - no way in hell would she tell her Aboveground friends, but she couldn't bring herself to tell the Underground ones, either.

It might be magic. But it wasn't doing anything except making her jumpy. Magic had a purpose and this didn't. Sarah wasn't sure if there was some hidden reason magic kept appearing around her, or if she was going crazy.

She opened her eyes, startled to realize that she had shut them without thinking. The mirror reflected back the pale wood of her hair brush, the leaf she'd picked out sitting on the floor, and, unfortunately, the mess of stuff shoved underneath her bed.

That, and the outline of something hanging on the outside of her window.

Sarah gasped and whipped around, tangling herself in the sheets. The window was empty. Sliding off the bed, she had to hop over to the window with the sheet wrapped around her foot to look out of it.

The same scene as always: people walking up and down the path that lead between the dorm and the class buildings out in the distance. Which reminded her, of course, that she had to head out again soon. She wasn't even supposed to be back here. Just grabbing lunch. But the dorm was so much more comfortable, and this math class was so boring, she couldn't believe that she needed it to graduate, what would she use it for…

Sarah shook herself and turned slowly back to the mirror. She squinted at it. There was nothing there now. And it had gone by so fast, she wasn't even sure what it had been.

Then the window creaked.

There was nothing reflected in the mirror. Sarah's eyes were glued to the glass, her feet stuck fast to the floor. The window creaked again. She could imagine the wind pressing against it, whipping around the building. There was no storm predicted for today but that wouldn't matter.

Sarah swallowed and squared her shoulders. Of course she knew what had been in the window, even if she couldn't remember the exact shape of it. It was always the same.

Jareth was the only one who ever came uninvited.

"Go away," she whispered. She stared at a point just above her shoulder in the mirror - where the window was shown in the reflection. "You are not welcome here."

The glass rattled as the wind picked up. Sarah moved her eyes over the mirror and thought it would be nice if there were trees out there. Then she could see if this wind touched anything in Aboveground except for her. Would it beat her back and forth across the path if she left this safety, if she tried to go to class?

She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, snapping, "Leave. You aren't welcome here!"

The next moment felt like she was hanging in the air. But the wind stopped. She felt her feet come unstuck from the floor and was able to turn around and stare at the window. It was still empty.

Sarah shut the blinds anyway.

The idea of losing her mind scared her down to her bones.

She grabbed her backpack and keys and bolted out of her room. Sometimes she wondered if going crazy might be better than having so much magic in her life.

***

The only time Sarah could talk to her Underground friends now was when her roommate wasn't around.

She had tried, before, to contact them during Ruth's classes… that hadn't worked out so well. Sometimes it was hard to convince them all to actually leave. Ruth nearly walking in on Ludo fading through the mirror had cured Sarah of that, though. Now she just waited for Ruth to go to parties on Friday nights or home on the weekends.

"You cut your hair," Hoggle said. He popped half a donut into his mouth.

They were all sitting on the floor of her room eating snacks she had pilfered from the dining hall's unlimited desert bar. Friday night, which meant that even her neighbors were gone. That was fine. No one outside ever asked about the noise. Her friends had learned to be a little quiet when being too loud meant waking Toby up.

"Hoggle, I cut my hair over a week ago," Sarah said, laughing. It was still long, but chopped and layered, more prone now to holding the waves she tried to press into it after the shower each morning.

Sir Didymus held out a handful of crumbs for Ambrosius to lick up. "But my lady, it was exactly fourteen nights since we were last invited here."

"Ludo wait," Ludo said. He shifted, and leaned against her roommate's bed frame. The wood creaked at his weight. "Ludo wait…" He faltered, and looked back and forth across the group's faces. "Long time," he finally said.

"Fourteen nights. I never misplace a date," Didymus proclaimed, lifting his nose in the air. Ambrosius shuffled forward and started licking at Didymus's plate. "Or was it fifteen… Or twelve…"

Sarah's chest constricted. "I guess… time got away from me," she mumbled.

Her face flushed at the frown Hoggle wore. "Time slipping is bad news, Sarah," he said.

Didymus stood up and sniffed the air. "Perhaps it's time for a quest!" he declared. He hopped up on Sarah's bed and she felt herself relax enough to laugh as he strutted back and forth over her sheets. "We should root out the source of this malignancy!"

"Aw, can it," Hoggle muttered. "You know we can't run about this place."

"I didn't mean it literally, Sir Didymus," Sarah added, smiling. "I just meant… I suppose I've been busier than I realized." She looked around at her group of friends as Didymus sniffed and perched on the edge of her bed. Her mood settled again and she folded her legs underneath herself. "I do still want you all in my lives."

"Didn't say anything about that," Hoggle muttered. He scooped up a cupcake. "Just have to be careful, when magic sticks to you."

Sarah blinked and things looked different when she opened her eyes again. Though no one in the circle had moved, the room seemed to have shifted an inch to the left. She opened her mouth to speak, but Didymus beat her to that.

"Magic," he sniffed. "Not to be trifled with!" He waved his sword vaguely in Sarah's direction. "My lady, ensure that you don't entrap yourself with such rubbish!"

"Guys, don't worry about it. I don't have magic," she assured them. "There's a big difference between magic and just having a strong will. Sir Didymus, maybe you should sit down before you … miss the rest of the food." Or stab a hole in the bedding.

Hoggle shifted his weight. "May not have magic, but there's magic here. How else could we pop back and forth? Besides, you bent things the way you wanted in the Labyrinth."

"That was just strength of will," Sarah repeated, flustered. She remembered that time in incredible detail, and she knew that it was her heart that broke her and Toby out of there, not a spell. "It wasn't magic. Otherwise I could fly, or make my homework do itself, or something."

Hoggle looked like he was going to protest that, too, but had to jump to the side when Didymus slid off the bed and nearly landed on Hoggle's foot.

Then they started arguing, and before Sarah knew it, she was yawning everyone was getting up to go home. She just managed to say goodbye, and to promise not to take so long before inviting them back, before Hoggle and Didymus and Ambrosius were gone.

Ludo's face was bent in concentration, though. "Ludo… like Sarah hair," he said, after a moment, smiling.

Sarah smiled back. "Thank you, Ludo," she said, waving as he vanished.

***

The nearest post office was a good twenty minute hike away, and she'd forgotten her bus pas. But if she didn't go now, the package wouldn't get out until next week, and Sarah would never hear the end of it.

No matter how many times her stepmother told Toby that Sarah wasn't his personal comics provider, the kid had barely just turned six. And Sarah had to admit that the comic shop near her school was much better than anything in the tiny little town where her family still lived.

She slid the package under one arm and pushed a crosswalk button with her elbow. It was so hot and bright today she was sure that when she finally got back to the dorm, she'd have the shape of her sunglasses burned against her face.

At least the post office itself had air conditioning. She fidgeted and tried not to lean against the ropes designating the aisle while people hemmed and hawed at the counter. The two people in front of her, an older woman and a young man, were still filling out forms.

The old woman looked up and frowned. "Do you have an umbrella in the car?"

"…No?" The man looked confused. He fumbled to pull a piece of paper out of his pocket and start copying the information onto his package. "It's ninety-five and clear skies. I checked the weather last night."

"Pfft." The old woman licked her pen before scribbling something on an envelope. "I checked my bones. It's going to rain soon."

Sarah reflexively glanced out the front doors. For a moment it looked like it had darkened incredibly outside, and then she realized that the glass in the doors was tinted. Were there more clouds in the sky than there had been when she'd left her last class? Trees were clearly rustling in the breeze, but she'd felt nothing like a sharp, cold wind on the way over that would signal a storm. At least from the looks of it, this was a wind that other people could see and feel.

"You should always keep an umbrella in your car," the woman complained. "You better hope we don't get drenched."

"We're going to be fine, Gram."

A few minutes later Sarah sighed to herself when one of the counters closed. Toby had better appreciate these comics. He'd originally wanted her to send them every week, when new ones came out, but Sarah couldn't manage that kind of schedule. Now he sent her his 'comics allowance' in the middle of the month, and she'd send the comics out every four weeks. Or bring them home, if she was visiting.

It ended up taking twice as long as she'd planned before she finally managed to get her package weighed, stamped, and sent off. She missed the post office at home. It had never been as crowded or slow as this one by the school.

On her way out, she pulled her sunglasses back out of her purse. Maybe there was a better post office somewhere else around the school she could go to next time…

She paused with her sunglasses on her nose and glanced above the rims. "Oh."

Gram had apparently been right that it was going to rain soon. It was still swelteringly hot, but the sky was no longer bright and Sarah could comfortably tuck her sunglasses away without feeling blinded.

"No eating dessert outside tonight," Sarah mumbled to herself.

She looked both ways and crossed the street, veering toward a parking garage with a tiny alley sidewalk next to it. It was much easier to cut through here than walk completely around the garage, then back down the street nearly a block. Her dad and stepmother would have a heart attack if they knew she did this, but all of the college students seemed to. Sarah even passed someone else on the way through it.

The sky was dim enough now that she could glance down to see if anyone was close behind her. She didn't hear any footsteps, but she did see a long shadow bobbing a few inches behind hers - which could mean they were a good distance behind, but still. She took the first opportunity to look over her shoulder.

Her eyes slid off the person before she could fix on their face, and when she looked back, the sidewalk was empty all the way to the other end.

She reached out one hand and braced herself on the wall of the parking garage. "Leave me alone," she hissed. Her fingers dug against the concrete and she slowly turned so her back was to the wall. All around her - nothing.

Magic didn't stick to her. It didn't collect around her. This could not be…

She looked down, and nearly exhaled with relief when she saw there was only one shadow branching off from her feet.

But there was definitely another one, just a couple steps in front of her, facing the other direction. From the body of a person who wasn't there. Or wasn't visible.

"Get away from me!" she snapped. She dropped her shoulder so her purse slid down to her elbow, then crooked her arm and swung as hard as she could. The purse flew through the spot the person would've been standing if they'd really been there. There was no impact, no thud of her purse against someone's body.

When Sarah's arm crossed her body and she could see the sidewalk again, the other shadow was gone.

She ran the rest of the way back to the dorm.

***

Half past midnight, Sarah woke up from the middle of a nightmare and flung herself out of bed before she realized there was no fire.

Then she fell, and fell, and fell.

The dim lights from her room faded as she dropped. She opened her mouth to scream and found the air nearly sucked from her lungs. Snapping her mouth back shut, she struggled to breathe again.

When she stretched out her hands, her fingertips didn't brush stone, or wood, or metal. When she kicked her legs, her feet connected with nothing. The wind rushing past her wasn't hot or cold. There was no light above or below her. She could barely tell the difference between squeezing her eyes shut and panic pinning them open.

She twisted and tumbled in the air, her heart pounding in her ears. Her hair whipped against her face. Maybe this was the nightmare and she would wake up for real any second now.

Or, she could land in a pile of leaves so deep that for a moment her face disappeared underneath them.

Sarah gasped - inhaling dirt - and kicked her way to the top of the leaf pile. They clung to every strand of her hair, and when her foot connected with a stick she thought for one terrifying moment that it was a snake.

She looked straight up when her face broke through to air, only to see bare tree branches stretching over everywhere in sight. They were ashen gray and gnarled, twisting around each other so much that it was hard to tell where one tree ended and another began. The leaves and the trees were all she could see, even when she managed to get to her feet. In no direction was the light brighter than anywhere else.

Sarah took a few deep breaths, pinched herself, and squeezed her eyes shut when she didn't wake up. When she finally got the courage to look around again, she tilted her head down to check herself.

Definitely not in her pajamas, though the skirt could have fooled her into thinking so for a moment. She recognized this dress. It wasn't in her closet, but she knew exactly where she would have found it if she'd needed to go looking. It was folded up in a box in the attic at home. A pale green gown with gold trimming. It didn't fit anymore, though this one did.

Taking a deep breath, she began to trudge through the leaves. It didn't matter what direction she chose. She knew where she was. The cold certainty settled onto her and made her heart clench.

There was no place like this Aboveground, after all.

***

"Hoggle?"

"Sir Didymus?"

"Ludo?"

"Anyone? Is anyone there at all?"

Sarah's feet were starting to hurt. The flat black shoes she'd found on her feet once she emerged from the leaves had been comfortable for a while. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in here. Long enough for her to want a clear path that would let her just carry the shoes in one hand for a while.

She had passed through two different sections of the Labyrinth already. None of her friends were there. Neither was a single other creature, unless the trees had been alive or there were insects blending into the walls of the twisting path she was walking down now.

At first she had been frustrated and dazed. She'd kept thinking that surely, any moment now, she would wake up. Then she broke free from the forest of leafless trees and stumbled into something that reminded her of the "outer wall" of the Labyrinth. The first part she'd wandered into all those years ago. Dark stone walls with moss.

Except instead of branching out straight in either direction, this path took one turn after another. Sometimes so quick that Sarah felt like she was spinning on her heels. And it was all leading absolutely nowhere. To no one. She called her friends' names every once in a while, but there was never a response.

And even with her aching feet, she would never, never ask for help from Jareth. Especially not from him. Especially not in this stupid dress, which -- which shouldn't fit, which she shouldn't be wearing, which should mean that it was all a dream. But she still couldn't wake up.

She walked with her hand pressed against the wall to look for hidden doorways. Then she got paranoid she might be missing doors on the other wall, so she switched back and forth. The process slowed her down and made her arms sore.

Picking up the hem of her skirt to step over a stretch of moss, she thought she heard running water. That sound made her realize she was desperately thirsty, and Sarah rushed ahead, forgetting to check the walls. The sound of the water got louder, and louder… and nothing.

Still stuck in this endless path.

"This might be the worst day of my life," she muttered. She pressed her back to one wall and slid down it, groaning.

When she hit the ground, the wall gave way against her back, and she tipped flat onto her shoulders.

For a moment she just lay there, startled. Her top half on one side of the wall and her legs on the other. When she got herself together enough to roll onto her stomach and start to crawl through, she spotted a waterfall-style fountain a few feet away in the middle of a cobblestone courtyard.

And Jareth sitting on its edge.

***

"Hello, Sarah."

Sarah's throat itched. She eyed the fountain behind Jareth and swallowed dryly, telling herself she hadn't actually been that long without a drink. Since she had no idea how long she had been down here, it wasn't that hard of a lie to hold to her chest.

"What do you want?" she asked. She took a few steps to the side. The doorway she'd come through would make for a useless retreat, so there was no sense keeping next to it.

Jareth tilted his head to one side. He looked exactly the same as he had the first time she'd him. The same face and hair. Same tall black boots and ridiculous jacket, with its ground-sweeping train.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" he asked, raising one eyebrow at her.

Sarah nearly choked. "Are you kidding me?"

Jareth rested his elbows on his legs. She'd expected him to smirk at her, but his face was blank. Two blue eyes watching her shuffle along the wall. He didn't smile or get up to come closer to her.

"I assure you I am not joking." He started to lean forward but stopped when Sarah hopped a step back. "Do you think this arena is the place I would choose to confront you again after all this time?"

She didn't take the bait and didn't look around the courtyard again. "I want to go home," she said, slowly. "Let me go, or-"

"Or what?" Jareth stood up. Sarah braced herself, but he didn't move toward her. "As I said, Sarah, I'm not the one who arranged this meeting. So what punishment are you going to exact against me simply for answering the invitation?"

Sarah stared at him.

The last time she'd been here, she had broken out through sheer will. She had been trying to free herself from this place since she'd landed. None of it had taken. If she wasn't fighting Jareth, then what…

But if she wasn't fighting Jareth, that meant he was telling the truth. She clenched her hands at her sides. "Why should I believe you?"

"If I had some nefarious goal, wouldn't I be trying to do something to achieve it?" he asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and glanced around the courtyard. For all intents and purposes, he looked… bored. Sarah never would've imagined it, but here was the Goblin King, standing before her… and apparently bored out of his mind.

She touched her shoulders to the wall behind her and eyed the fountain. She wanted to go home. She wanted a drink. She wanted Jareth to stop toying with her and answer her questions. She really wanted a drink.

"Don't let me stop you," he said, making her jump.

He held both his hands up, palms out, and side-stepped until he was on the other end of the courtyard. When Sarah glared at him and walked to the fountain without turning her back on him, he gave her a mocking bow. She sat on the edge of the fountain and drank a few gulps of water from her hands. It stifled the itch in her throat and cooled her head. She struggled to use those moments to think of something to say.

Jareth, of course, ended up speaking first. "Do tell, how exactly is my sinister image holding up for you now?"

Sarah's face flushed dark pink. She took one more gulp of water and tried to discreetly wipe her hand off on her sleeve. "As well as it has for the past five years."

"Whenever will you let go of this grudge against me? I have only ever done as you required." Jareth let out a nearly inaudible sigh and leaned against the wall. "Such as, of course, answering your summons here today."

"I didn't summon you, Jareth," she snapped.

"I certainly didn't call you here." His eyes flashed at her. "Perhaps if you're willing to extend me the basic courtesy of believing that one truth, this conversation can go somewhere."

She felt her pulse pounding in her head and winced. Her feet didn't hurt as much now that her weight was off them, but her body seemed determined to be in pain. She had no desire to splash water on her face during an argument, though. "I'm not interested in this conversation going anywhere."

"I can see that," Jareth drawled. The sound of his voice shuddered along Sarah's spine. "But the fact remains that it's been conspired that we have one."

She rolled her eyes at that. "I just want to leave here so I can go back to sleep."

Jareth's eyes raked over her face. He didn't react to what she said or that she looked away from him as soon as their eyes met. "What do you want me here for, Sarah?"

Inhaling, Sarah curled her fingers around the edge of the fountain seat. "Unless you can get me home, I don't want anything from you."

Jareth stared at her for a long moment. The silence wavered between them and Sarah thought for a split second that he was going to admit he'd brought her here, give up on whatever it was he wanted, and send her home. Instead he just stepped away from the wall and started walking away from the fountain, towards what looked like a solid wall but obviously wasn't once he stepped through it.

"I can't send you home when I wasn't the one to bring you here. Perhaps we have nothing to discuss after all."

Sarah watched him disappear and grit her teeth. "Good riddance."

***

There was no way that she was going to use the same passage out of the courtyard that Jareth did. He was probably back in his castle, anyway, but she didn't want to run the risk that he was standing just around the corner with open arms.

She ran her hand along the other walls instead. Not just the part at shoulder-height, either. She crouched down to look for any more tiny entrances like the one she'd come through. Despite looking all over three of the walls, she didn't even find the place where she'd entered the courtyard.

"I'm not supposed to be here," she said to herself, staring down at the cobblestones. "I'm supposed to be in bed, dreading the alarm going off. Not in this horrible place."

"Horrible place, horrible place!"

Sarah spun on her heel. "Hello? Who's there?"

"Who's there! Who's there!"

The voice lilted in sing-song from some spot Sarah couldn't see. She ran her eyes over the courtyard and carefully walked toward the fountain, trying to make as little noise with her footsteps as possible. "Where are you?" she asked.

No response. She tried again. "Hello hello?"

"Hello hello!"

A smile played over her face. She was sure the voice was coming from behind the quiet rush of the waterfall fountain. Eyes on the ground, she stood on the fountain rim and edged her way up to the wall. The hem of her dress darkened in the front as water splashed against it. She ignored that and instead pressed her palm against the wall next to the water.

"You're through here, aren't you?" she asked. There was no response, again, but she wasn't worried. She couldn't find a way through the stone on this side. Stepping down, she walked over to the other side of the fountain and tried again. "You have a lovely voice," she added.

"Lovely voice!" the strange speaker raised their volume here and Sarah thought that she might have heard a laugh behind the words, too.

There was no door on this side either. Sarah stared at the fountain for a minute before she realized that she hadn't actually checked everywhere. She groaned and rubbed both her hands over her face. "Seriously?"

The voice didn't answer that time either, but it was probably for the best.

Sighing, Sarah leaned forward and slid her hand along the wall underneath the water. After only an inch or two, it disappeared. She nearly fell forward from the surprise. Well. She'd found her way out of here.

Gathering her skirt up around her shins, she took a deep breath and stepped into the fountain. The water immediately swirled around her legs. What had been pleasant to drink was a biting chill against her skin. She realized too late, too, that she hadn't taken off her shoes, and they were going to be soaked.

Oh, well.

"Let's go, Sarah," she whispered to herself. Then she held her breath and burst through the waterfall.

The water didn't end as soon as she stepped through the fountain. No, it kept going, and for a horrific few seconds she thought she might drown. Three more steps got her out of it, though. Drenched from head to toe and bringing a cascade of water with her onto an otherwise bone-dry red stone platform.

When she looked over her shoulder, the back of the waterfall glimmered in the light. Her dress and hair dripped everywhere but the fountain fed directly into the floor. Coughing, she looked out in front of her.

The red stone led out from the platform through a few twisting pathways down a huge hillside. But it was all visible. There was bare brown dirt, and dead-looking scrub grass, but nothing else.

"…Let's go?"

Sarah blinked, startled. The voice, right. She looked in both directions before glancing down at her feet. Just a few yards ahead of her, where there was a wide patch of dirt between stones in the paths, crouched a creature she'd never seen before. It was tiny and fluffy, with only one black eye and -- oh.

"You look just like my roommate's stuffed animal," she said, hesitantly stepping forward.

The creature tilted its head to one side. Sure enough, one of its ears flopped over to reveal a bare patch of skin underneath. Sarah clenched her teeth. Missing fur was more charming on something that wasn't real.

"Do you know the way out of here?" she asked.

The thing blinked.

Sarah stared at it. Then she raised her head and looked out at the hillside. It sloped down for quite a while before hitting a wall of dark green hedges. It was apparently the only direction to head in, but she wasn't excited about it.

She stepped forward but couldn't get her body to relax. "Why should I have to do this?" she asked, still staring at the hedges in the distance. She hesitated, then turned around and looked up.

Sure enough, in the opposite direction was Jareth's castle. It was shrouded by the strange orange-red atmosphere here. From where she was standing it looked like she could fit it in the palm of her hand.

"It's not that fantastic." It looked a lot like the campus did if you were coming back to it on one of the cross-town buses. She could pinch it between her fingers if she wanted.

She stared at it for a long moment. "My kingdom is as great," she said, softly.

Looking down at her hands, she hesitated, then curled her fingers into fists.

Maybe 'magic' did stick to her. She had never needed to spell or summon anything in the Labyrinth before. It had just been her. Her friends, and herself. Definitely herself at the last. There had been no magic there.

Just her will.

Sarah took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and stepped back through the water.

"Kingdom," the tiny creature said, as the waterfall started to dry up.

***

When Sarah's foot touched the ground, it was dry. She opened her eyes and shuddered.

It had been five years, but she still recognized the room. This was Jareth's castle. A room at the bottom of a staircase, where she'd had to leave her friends to run off and find her brother.

She forced her hands to relax and let her skirt fall back to her feet. That was dry, too. So were her shoes. She touched her hair and found that dry as well, resting in waves against her shoulders. So she could still bend the Labyrinth to her will after all. And … much more effectively than she had the first time around.

There was nothing blocking the stairs and no goblins growling at her in this tiny room. She could walk upstairs and confront Jareth without any fuss or fight.

But what would she say?

Jareth was at least invested in putting forward the idea that she'd been the one to bring herself here. That she'd been the one to summon him into the Labyrinth to meet with her.

Sarah would scream up and down that he was lying, but a cold feeling was twisting in her gut. If she didn't have control here, then she shouldn't have been able to get to the castle so easily. If Jareth had more control, then why hadn't she run into more trouble - especially after shouting at him to leave her alone?

Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want.

She shut her eyes and stepped to the side, so anyone coming down the staircase wouldn't see her immediately. That didn't mean Jareth didn't already know she was here. But this had been a bad decision. She couldn't think. What was she going to say to him?

When her shoulders touched the wall Sarah began to shake. This couldn't be happening. She had been so careful. Resist magic and she would be fine. But now she was here, in the heart of the Labyrinth, and she didn't even know why. If she didn't figure it out she would go insane.

Jareth had made it clear that he wouldn't help her leave this place for nothing. It was up to her to rescue herself, again. Especially because the price for purchasing anyone else's help would be far too high.

Just fear me, love me, do as I say… and I will be your slave.

"What am I doing here?" she whispered, looking up at the ceiling.

I have only ever done as you required.

Her nails dug into her palms.

***

The throne room erupted in noise when Sarah appeared in the doorway.

She fought not to step back or flinch. The goblins screeched and scattered around, bumping into each other, some of them grabbing weapons, others running for exits, a good few piling up in front of her and snarling.

Jareth, who'd been lounging in his throne with his legs tossed over one side, slowly sat up straight and stared at her.

"All of you," he said, raising his voice more with each word. "Get out!"

Sarah braced herself in the doorway as all of the goblins rushed to leave through other exits. It was a whirl of footsteps and clattering metal. Part of her was glad to see that they dropped the weapons on the floor. She didn't need to worry about an army lurking outside the throne room doors.

When the dust had settled and silence stretched through the room again, Sarah stepped through the doorway and walked until she was a couple of feet from the throne.

"Hello again," Jareth said.

"You've been visiting me Aboveground," Sarah said. She didn't frame it as a question. Jareth wasn't going to get to twist this conversation around for his amusement. "You've been using magic to change things around me."

Jareth leaned back and put his hands down on the arms of his throne. His eyes glittered. "You have never expelled magic from your life, Sarah."

"It has to stop. It will stop."

His eyes fixed on her face. "Are you going to banish your little friends from your world, too?"

"Jareth," she said, fists clenched at her sides. He smiled at the use of his name and she held back as much emotion from her face as she could. It was a struggle. "I don't want you to come near me, ever again. I'm not playing games with you."

Without warning he launched himself out of the throne and strode across the space separating them. Sarah had only taken a breath before Jareth was standing only inches from her, leaning down so that his face was just above hers. It felt like her heart was about to burst out of her chest and she wondered if she looked terrified.

"Do you think I'm playing games?" he asked.

Sarah fought to concentrate on her goal. The only thing she needed now was to go home, without Jareth following her. But she hadn't expected him to fly at her like this, and she couldn't get a word past her lips.

"I am not the one who brought you here today," he hissed. His voice was quiet but seemed to shake the longer he spoke. Even with the extra inches she'd grown in the past five years, he still towered over her. "I am not the one who threw myself through my own Labyrinth to attend to someone who dismissed me out of hand."

"I don't want to be here. I don't want to be around you." She was repeating herself, but it helped her refocus. "You are not going to follow me Aboveground, ever again."

"Then perhaps you should resolve to stop calling me!" Jareth snapped. His eyes flashed so brightly Sarah couldn't look away. For a second they had sparked and glowed.

A wind cut through the throne room. It shook a tapestry. Sarah and the Goblin King stood stock still, eyes locked together.

Jareth broke the silence. "You want magic in your life, Sarah. You have always wanted magic in your life." A grim smile twisted his lips and he leaned back slightly. Sarah felt like even that inch gave her a mile of breathing room. "You want glamour and song and-"

"Children's fantasies," Sarah interrupted. "There's a difference between dreaming and obsession."

She knew the difference, now. And she knew which option was standing before her.

"You want power, Sarah," Jareth said, as if she hadn't spoken. The wind blew through again and the light in the room dimmed as clouds passed overhead. "You want to command any room you are in and everyone in it."

Her heart pounded in her chest. "I'll do that on my own, thank you."

"Wants are wishes, my dear," Jareth said, his voice dropping to a purr. "And you have so, so many wants." He lifted his hand and his fingers brushed against Sarah's cheek.

His touch felt like sparks going off in her skin. She rushed backward, flinging herself away from him. "I don't wish for anything! And I would never let you grant a wish of mine, even if I did!"

"You want magic in your life. You want it to make your day different than everyone else's. You want to be special, Sarah, and when you want those things, I answer." Jareth took a step toward her and she took another backward. "That's what I am to you, an answer for all those wants you keep hidden." Another step, and another, Sarah retreating with a growing horror. "You dare to issue a threat over the fulfillment of your own wishes?"

Sarah's heart flickered and she felt anger surge up from her chest. "I told you, I do. not. wish."

The next step he took, she didn't fall back. She raised a hand and shoved him away from her, though she only had the strength to make him move a few feet. Shock widened his eyes.

"You're a cheater and a liar who - who if anything, takes advantage and bends the rules until they snap," Sarah told him. She hoped that the long skirt of her dress hid the fact that her knees were shaking.

A wave crashing down on her, cold and icy and clear as crystal.

"You take any tiny crack in the world and flood it wide open," Sarah said. She looked over Jareth's face. It looked brand new. "You're the ugliest part of ambition, the part that'll do anything for any reason, you're-"

"I'm what?" he asked, frozen in place, now.

"You're the worst side of a wish," she whispered, half to herself.

Jareth scowled, his eyes darkening. "I answer your calls. When you beckon me to your side, I come. I can still fulfill everything you want, Sarah. I can still help you twist your world around you," he said, speaking rapidly, his words nearly blurring together. "I ask for nothing in return-"

"You ask for everything!"

"-except one simple, simple thing," Jareth said. He reached out and grabbed her wrist and Sarah jerked back, startled, not understanding how he was suddenly back in front of her again instead of partway across the room, and then he snatched her other wrist from the air when she raised her hand back to strike him again. "One simple thing," he repeated, bending his face down to hers.

Sarah tried to remember. Remember.

"Tell me, Sarah," Jareth said. "Tell me you'll stay."

Remember. That was the goal, wasn't it? To remember. To remember not to let magic in, not to let herself go crazy, not to…

Not to forget that she had places to go-

Not to forget to mail Toby's comics-

Not to forget that magic wasn't real-

Not to forget that she could do it herself-

Not to forget about wishes-

"You are the worst part of my wishes," Sarah said. Half to herself. Her heart stopped for a brief second, and she let out a breath. "And you have no power over me."

The floor cracked like ice underneath their feet.

Jareth's eyes sparked. He let her go. The floor shifted, splitting into pieces, and dropped out from underneath them. Sarah felt the dress whip around her legs as wind rushed past them and darkness flooded the air as the Labyrinth swallowed her up, one last time.

She fell, and fell, and fell.

***

When she opened her eyes, she was looking up at her dorm room ceiling.

Her head was lying on the floor and her legs were tangled in a sheet half-hanging from her bed. The only light in the room filtered in through their blinds and glowed quietly from two alarm clocks on either side of the room.

Sarah took one stuttering breath after another and held back a laugh so she wouldn't wake her roommate.

She buried her face in her hands and shook until her breath came evenly and her heartbeat was quiet.

Today she had math class.

And it was Wednesday. Wednesday was the day she picked up Toby's comics.

She rolled over onto her stomach and gingerly pushed herself to her knees. The clothes she had on were her own pajamas. She touched her hair and found it done up the way she normally did before going to bed. Putting one hand on the mattress next to her, she lifted herself back to her feet, and set about untangling her legs from her sheets.

Wind banged against the windows and nearly made her trip.

But her roommate groaned and rolled over at the sound, so Sarah let out a sigh of relief. She looked down at the floor and saw the other girl's stuffed animal on the floor, and, smiling to herself, Sarah scooped it up and put it next to Ruth. Then she turned and climbed into her own bed.

Shutting her eyes, she folded her hands over her heart.

Her kingdom stretched from the dorm room to the theater across campus. It branched out to touch the post office and the strange, warehouse-like building where her math class was filled. It shot along highways and railways back to her hometown, and it was anchored firmly in a house on streets and in parks that she might never see the same way again.

But it was her kingdom. And it would get bigger, one day.

Without having to wish.

Sarah would make it that way. Herself.

The wind knocking against the building was just a storm, and nothing more.


End file.
